


The Best Sound in the Universe

by IcyPanther



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Homesick Lance (Voltron), Humor, Pranks and Practical Jokes, Protective Matt Holt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-28
Updated: 2020-07-28
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:41:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25570741
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IcyPanther/pseuds/IcyPanther
Summary: Matt pops by the castle intending to visit Katie, but she’s too busy to hang out with her awesome older brother. Everyone is too busy to visit with him, it seems. Everyone except Lance. And, well… that was their first mistake. / “I think we should play some pranks,” Matt grinned. “Nothing that will hurt anyone, of course, but just something to remind everyone how dangerous it is to put two bored, insanely good-looking, and extremely mischievous minds together without supervision.”Game. On.
Relationships: Matt Holt & Lance
Comments: 66
Kudos: 309





	The Best Sound in the Universe

**Author's Note:**

> **Timeline notes:** early-mid season four  
>  **Warning notes:** none

“Lance, right?”

Matt knew the other boy’s name — of course he did, he never forgot a name — but that was pretty much _all_ he knew about him from Katie’s whirlwind spiel other than he was the pilot of the Red Lion, had been the pilot in Katie’s Garrison team, and also apparently had a thing for the princess too if the fire dagger eyes he’d shot at Matt upon their first meeting had been any indication.

Otherwise he had a really, really, _really_ bad case of pink eye.

He definitely wasn’t who Matt would have picked to hang out with but Katie had practically kicked him out of her lab where she and Hunk were working on some project that even he wasn’t allowed to see and seriously, was that how one treated their long-lost brother after he decided to drop by for a visit? Shiro was in some meeting along with the princess and the advisor, Coran, although Matt still wasn’t sure if that was with a ‘C’ or a ‘K’ for his mental dictionary, and Matt hadn’t wanted to go back to the Rebels quite that quickly. He’d thought he’d pop by the kitchen, see if maybe Hunk had something in the fridge he could eat as his meals were pretty much touched by the hand of God, and wait around a bit to see if anyone remembered how cool he was and decided he would be far more exciting to visit with than anything else they were doing.

But the kitchen hadn’t been empty, Lance standing at the counter and now that Matt was looking closer with a… pail of milk?

What?

The boy didn’t quite startle at the sudden address but his eyes were wide and lips set before he must have recognized Matt and to Matt’s surprise after their first (and last) meeting a genuine smile crossed his face.

“Yeah,” he inclined his head. “Lance Esposito; Voltron’s Red Paladin, ninja sharpshooter and,” his titles were followed by an impish smirk. “Farmboy extraordinaire. Want some milk? It’s fresh.”

“I’m a little scared to ask where you got that,” Matt said, even as he made a ‘come hither’ motion with his hand and Lance turned around for a cabinet and pulled out two glasses. “And what alien species it’s from.”

“Kaltenecker’s our cow,” Lance said. “A legit Earth cow we got at the space mall. Here,” he pushed a glass in Matt’s direction while he turned to the opposite counter and opened up a tin.

Matt’s mouth watered.

_Cookies._

Honest to fucking God cookies.

“So,” Lance pushed the tin of cookies towards Matt, “come to visit Pidge?”

“That was the plan,” Matt said, taking a handful.

God.

They were chocolate chip. 

He nearly inhaled the first followed by a second.

“Even you weren’t allowed in the lab, huh?” Lance teased gently although there was something… wistful in the words and he had looked away, angling for a laundry basket with what looked like clean if unfolded kitchen towels. “They get like that sometimes. Team Punk,” his lips quirked up and had Matt not been looking for it he’d have missed it.

Lance felt left out. 

And sounded like it was far from the first time this had happened. 

Lance’s friends squirreled away, Shiro and the two Alteans busy with Coalition matters, and Lance…

Lance was doing chores.

By himself.

Uh uh.

Not on Matt’s watch. 

“Terrible, isn’t it?” he asked, licking cookie crumbs from his fingers and keeping his voice light. “I come all this way and she can’t spare a minute for her big brother. For shame. Which is why…” he leaned conspiratorially across the counter, “I think we should do something about it.”

“Oh?” Lance’s tone was a mixture of amused and the slightest touch of concern and it earned him a kudo point in Matt’s book because good, revenge wasn’t oftentimes a good thing, especially on a friend.

“I think we should play some pranks. _Lots_ of pranks,” Matt emphasized. “And everyone is fair game. Nothing that will hurt anyone, of course,” Matt flapped a hand and he silently awarded Lance another point as tight shoulders untensed with his latest addendum, “but just something to remind everyone how _dangerous_ it is to put two bored, insanely good-looking, and extremely mischievous minds together without supervision.”

“You sound just like my brother Marco,” Lance shook his head, even as a grin was pulling at his face and his eyes were sparking. “All right. I’m in. Just one rule.” His expression sobered. “We don’t target Allura.”

“Oh?” Matt parroted, smirking. “Why not?”

Lance crossed his arms, lips pressed together although the image was ruined by the spots of pink taking over tan cheeks. 

Matt chuckled, letting it drop. He wasn’t here to tease Lance about his crush when even he couldn’t deny how beautiful and strong the princess was and (even though he’d never admit it) he was also slightly terrified what would happen if she did get caught in the crossfire and all of that blazing beauty was turned on them.

“All right, princess is a no go. We good?”

Matt held out his hand and Lance took it with a firmer grip than Matt had expected. “We’re good,” Lance smiled. 

“Then let’s go have some fun.”

xxx

Lance’s knowledge of the Castle of Lions was beyond vital, as was knowing the timetables of everyone aboard the ship, for their plans. Thanks to that information they had nearly two hours to prepare as while Matt knew Katie could go for days when in the middle of a project, Hunk, Lance explained, would get hungry around mealtimes so he’d be calling a pause break at about noon to go prep lunch for himself and Katie in the kitchen. 

The Coalition meeting was probably going to wrap up within the hour but Shiro would go straight to training for at least an hour and Allura generally remained on the bridge for a couple hours to go over notes. Coran would stay with her or go off to work on some project of his own — on the docket for today would be washing the guest hangar floors since Lance had already taken care of a few other ones. 

And now, after running amok around the castle with no one the wiser, they were safely sequestered in the ceiling to watch the shenanigans unfold on Matt’s laptop through the multiple cameras Matt had both set up and hacked into the castle’s existing ones, a tin of cookies, several juice pouches, and a batch of space popcorn that lacked the grease of Earth’s, between them. 

This wasn’t how Matt had seen his day going but honestly he was glad for the change. It’s not that he didn’t want to see Katie but seeing the way Lance’s smiles and laughs had become more and more genuine, his touches — nudges and elbows and after setting up one prank laughing so hard his head ended up pressed against Matt’s shoulders as he tried to stifle his amusement — less hesitant (and he was someone Matt had pegged who thrived on physical affection and positive affirmation), and just how _happy_ he seemed after that masked happiness in the kitchen made Matt beyond happy too.

It…

It was nice to play the role of a big brother, even if this wasn’t his sibling. And Lance had said Matt reminded him of his own brother — there were four older siblings, he’d learned — and it made something bittersweet fill his chest as he had been reunited with Katie but Lance was still so far from his family who, given how the Garrison had covered up Matt’s own disappearance, may have spun some tragic tale to the Paladins’ families and, well…

They would cross that when they got back to Earth. But today wasn’t for thinking on heavy things like that.

No.

It was for _fun._

And as Katie and Hunk entered the kitchen it looked like they were about to see their results.

“Right on time,” Matt said, giving Lance a gentle nudge and smiling softly to himself as Lance subconsciously leaned into it. “Nice job.”

“What can I say, Hunk is a creature of habit,” Lance gave a shrug. “And… yup, there he goes.”

To the fridge.

Matt leaned forward in anticipation as Hunk pulled on the fridge handle…

And it didn’t move.

He gave it another tug, frown pulling on his face, and Katie called out something from her spot at the counter bar and Matt wished once again they had audio but he hadn’t had time to configure an entire sound system into the castle’s visual only cameras. 

One more pull should fully turn the lever Matt had configured inside the fridge door and allow it to open.

And of course the giant vat of compressiorized whip cream like substance too.

Hunk though dropped his hand from the fridge door before he gave pull number three as Katie came over and he stepped aside for her.

“Oh _Dios,”_ Lance wheezed out as Katie gripped the handle with both hands. “She’s gonna—”

There was no sound but Matt could imagine it well as the giant wall of whipped cream _burst_ out of the fridge and completely coated her head to foot in goopy white layers, the spray catching Hunk’s right leg and side.

A dot of pink — Katie’s tongue — appeared, licking it away.

There was a beat.

And then what Matt could only imagine were curses began to flow from her mouth as she stomped her feet in the suds and sent more whipped cream splattering the kitchen.

And oh.

That was definitely his name on her lips.

“She’s onto us,” Matt said sagely.

“She’s onto _you,”_ Lance pointed out.

‘ _Lance!’_ Matt lip read surrounded by more curses and translated happily for Lance who gave a good natured shrug even if he winced at the vulgarities. Matt made a mental note to try and keep those to a minimum although he, like all Holts minus his dad, were partial to swearing like sailors. 

As they watched, Hunk moved around the mess and towards the small closet where they kept a mop and other various cleaning supplies for the kitchen, which Lance had said Hunk would do one hundred percent because he would never leave his beloved kitchen a mess.

He turned the handle…

And the giant strung up sheet just below the ceiling holding a mixture of sprinkles and confetti hooked up to a nearly invisible thread on the other side of the door handle turned over.

Matt nearly choked on his laugh as the large red plastic balls — “ _They look like cherries!” Lance had argued as he put them into the sheet —_ plopped directly onto Katie’s head.

Oh God.

Oh God she was going to _murder_ him. 

He took a screen capture from the camera of the adorable sundae she made. He’d put in his will he wanted to be buried with it. 

“Oh, oh, Coran entered the hangar!” Lance tapped a different camera screen excitedly and Matt shrunk the one of the kitchen to focus on their next prank, as Hunk would and should still be picking up the kitchen and they hadn’t pranked any of the cleaning supplies.

Well, not in the kitchen.

The cleaning materials Coran had previously selected and put on a cart in the hangar and that Matt and Lance had modified just a little bit were a different story. And now it was the moment of truth as the man dipped the nearly Earth like mop into the solution he’d just mixed and they could almost hear the _splat_ as the wet mop hit the ground.

Coran went to push it forward...

And he nearly tripped over it as it remained completely stationary. 

Coran gave it a harder push.

Nothing.

He lifted his hand from it and the mop remained completely upright.

Lance snickered as Coran went to brace his foot on it to push and his boot became stuck to the bristles and his second foot was now glued to the ground as the glue-like mixture reacted to the cooler hangar floors and hardened.

The man was more spry than Matt had anticipated as he manged to free both of his feet and leapt backwards free of the mess, hands on his hips as he surveyed the stuck mop.

And just as Lance had predicted Coran went back to his cart of cleaning supplies and emerged with the Altean version of goo-be-gone (it was made from Altean saliva, Lance had said with a completely straight face and Matt wasn’t sure to be disgusted or amazed).

He pressed the nozzle and directed it at the base of the mop. 

Bubbles _exploded_ at the contact and Coran jumped back nearly a yard in surprise. 

And the bubbles…

They kept growing. 

It was a standard chemical reaction Matt had shrugged, essentially baking soda and vinegar, and the bubbles would spread and grow as they touched all the other spots in the hangar he and Lance had previously dumped puddles of the glue. It’d self-clean and make the hangar sparkle by the end, but in the interim it would fill with giant bubbles and if he’d done his calculations right those bubbles should—

Ah, and there went his camera view as the suds overtook the lens, one last glimpse of Coran turning and running for the interior door as the bubbles grew and grew behind him.

Just in time too as there was movement on the camera Matt was near giddy to see and he switched screens to the Paladins’ bedroom hallway where Shiro was emerging from his room. Matt and Lance had agreed it was too dangerous to do any pranks in the training room and so that left the bathroom where Shiro was bound to go for his shower.

And…

“It worked,” Lance’s whisper was both awed and horrified. 

“It worked,” Matt whispered back, taking a screen capture as Shiro unknowingly looked directly into the camera, putting the formerly white and now hot pink fluff of his forelock on full display. Matt hadn’t been sure of the dye’s potency when mixed with Shiro’s shampoo, but…

Well…

He’d say it was a rousing success. 

And best yet?

Shiro didn’t seem to have noticed.

He would in a moment though as his trajectory was putting him on path with Katie, who was emerging from the bathroom soaking wet and looking like a very angry drowned rat.

Matt grabbed a handful of popcorn and sat back to enjoy the show.

xxx

The next hour passed by far too quickly for some and not quick enough for others as the Paladins and Coran stumbled across various traps and pranks littered throughout the castle as they hunted for Lance and Matt, Katie screaming at the top of her lungs how badly she was going to kill them that even without camera audio they picked up through the vents.

The threat was negated somewhat by the fact she’d been the lucky person that the box of packing peanuts (with even worse static cling than Earth ones) had fallen atop of from the lounge door and she was a big, styrofoam-y shaped human. 

Shiro had found the taped faucet that splattered his face also in the kitchen and Hunk had located the carefully designed stacking system of (plastic, they didn’t want any actual injuries) plates that had fallen comically out of the shelf one by one to land atop his head. 

Coran had walked into sticky paper and been blasted with feathers.

They’d all been followed around by sound cubes quoting them from the Voltron Show until Katie had managed to short circuit them with a crystal pulse.

They’d traversed the lounge transformed into a giant ball pit from a trip wire ceiling drop, walked through a mini photo gallery where everyone had Coran’s moustache edited in every picture, got caught in an anti-gravity hallway (and ultimately saved by Allura, emerging from the bridge and her look of surprise and then amusement as the others no doubt filled her in had had Lance grinning dopily at the screen and Matt very kindly didn’t make a comment) and now they were all gathered back in the kitchen slumped around the table in various stages of exhaustion, amusement and tired anger.

There was only one prank left they had yet to trip.

The food goo machine. Lance had told Matt how it’d gone haywire one time and Matt had managed to mimick that line of code to create the same result. They had bets riding on who would trigger it first as by this point no one had had lunch and someone was bound to go to it.

Lance’s vote was Coran and Matt’s was Shiro’s, who had horrible taste in food no matter what universe it was in and would want to refuel after a workout regardless of what it was.

So far it was sitting innocently untouched as Hunk stood at the fridge, pulling out ingredients with a look of wariness on his face, while everyone else drank water pouches at the table, save Katie who had stomped off no doubt to change and try to get rid of the packing peanuts.

Coran began to push his chair back from the table and Lance let out a soft “ha!” that was followed by a more horrified sounding, “no…” as Allura waved a hand at him and went towards the cabinets.

The cabinet where the bowls for food goo were stored.

“No no no,” Lance shook his head as she gathered three, looking over her shoulder and apparently getting requests, and began to head for the machine. “Matt,” his voice was high. “Matt, abort. Abort the prank.”

“I can’t,” Matt said, not sure if he should be laughing or crying right now. “There’s no way to stop it now.”

“Matt, Matt _please,”_ Lance gripped his arm, eyes darting from Matt’s to the screen where Allura was now standing in front of the machine. “Oh _Dios,_ stop it. We have to stop it.”

Matt clapped a hand on Lance’s shoulder and summoned those panicked eyes to his. “Lance.” He paused. Swallowed. “Be brave.”

And he turned his gaze back on the tragic comedy about be enacted. 

Lance moaned next to him.

And they watched as Allura was blasted by the food goo machine, every nozzle activating and dousing her with full power.

It shut off as programmed a very long five seconds later.

Silence echoed in both their hiding place and even without audio they knew it was ringing in the kitchen. 

A glob of goo fell with a silent _plop_ to the floor from Allura’s outstretched hand.

Lance whimpered.

Matt couldn’t blame him. 

He squeezed Lance’s shoulder where his hand still rested to offer what little comfort he could.

A hand settled on his own shoulder.

A hand that…

That couldn’t belong to Lance, both of his clenched around an empty juice pouch.

A small hand.

A hand that was very lightly shocking him with static cling.

Oh God.

“Found you,” came a dark, gleeful whisper from behind. 

Matt and Lance’s screams echoed throughout the castle.

xxx

It wasn’t as bad as they’d imagined. Allura had been amused by the entire thing, strangely delighted to be ‘pranked’ as part of an Earth custom, and other than having to clean up the entire castle from their pranks and give a sincere apology to everyone affected they got out of it without penalty.

And even had there been one…

He’d have been happy to accept it. 

It had been fun and the universe needed a little fun.

Although…

“Shiro, man, we’ve got this,” Matt said as Lance chased packing peanuts around the room with a fan to corral them back into the box while he painstakingly pulled feathers out of the carpet. 

“Nope,” Shiro sat on the couch, arms folded and pink hair nearly glowing (It should fade in three washes. Hopefully). “You heard the princess. The two of you together require adult supervision.”

“You’re only a year older than me!”

“ _Adult_ supervision,” Shiro repeated although the amused twitch of his lips gave him away. He still didn’t move from his spot.

Matt caught Lance’s eye and gave a subtle jerk of his chin in Shiro’s direction.

Lance nodded back.

Shiro’s eyes widened. “Wait. Matt, no, don’t you dare. Lance—!”

A mess of packing peanuts filled the air.

So did laughter.

And it was the best sound in the universe. 

**Author's Note:**

> Wasn't planning to post anything today, but it's Lance's birthday so... as a present to him, it's a light, flangsty fic rather than whump because one of these years I really ought to be nice to him on his birthday. Request fic of Matt and Lance and pranking :) 
> 
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> 
> 💥 **(Like my works? Want to read even MORE? Visit my[Tumblr, icypantherwrites](https://icypantherwrites.tumblr.com)!)💥**  
> 


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